Veterans of Afghanistan

On Nov. 11, America honors armed service members past and present on Veterans Day. In a military town like San Diego, the men and women who have defended our nation are neighbors, friends, classmates or loved ones. Here are four from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton who deployed to Afghanistan this year.

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Nicholas Geisinger witnessed the miracles of modern battlefield medicine nearly every day in Afghanistan, and on mercifully less frequent occasions, its tragic shortcomings.

The 26-year-old Navy surgical technician served his second combat tour in Helmand province this year. In a sweltering medical tent in the desert near Musa Qala, about three dozen Navy medical personnel assigned to Camp Pendleton’s 1st Maintenance Battalion treated more than 60 patients a month this summer at Forward Operating Base Edinburgh.

Geisinger was posted to what was the busiest “Role 2” military medical facility in Afghanistan before the base was dismantled for the drawdown. His job on the front lines was to help doctors stabilize patients with “damage control” surgery before they were transferred to higher-level care in the rear.

Geisinger would get butterflies in his stomach and begin to sweat as he prepared for a patient, scrubbing up, checking blood flow. “It’s a rush. Because I know I am doing good and giving them the chance to go home to see their families if we save a life,” he said.

Treating war wounds is technically challenging, with more grievous injuries than any seen in stateside emergency rooms. At their site in the violent north of the province, amputations of multiple limbs and mass casualties of as many as 11 people injured in one attack were common. The team even extracted a rocket-propelled grenade from one patient.

Veterans Day 2012

Confronted daily as they were with life and death and a stream of hideous injuries inflicted by roadside bombs, suicide bombers and gunshots, made for extreme emotional highs and lows.

The medical team treated whoever came to the door: U.S. and allied NATO forces, Afghan troops, local residents caught in the violence, and even suspected insurgents. For Geisinger, caring for the Marines was the most personal.

Each time the medevac helicopter landed and litter teams brought in a wounded Marine, Geisinger felt a spike of adrenaline and prayed he wouldn’t know him from Camp Pendleton.

During his previous tour in 2009-2010, when combat was worse and he was even busier, he treated a hospital corpsman he knew who lost both legs. “At the time, you’re just doing your job. After that, it’s like, ‘Oh man, I know him, I know his family. How is he going to deal with that?’” Geisinger said.